Volitans Software Announces SMART Utility 3.1.2

[prMac.com] Lancaster, Pennsylvania - Volitans software has announced the release of SMART Utility 3.1.2, a minor update to the hard drive diagnostic application. The new features include a new email system, better drive support, and many bug fixes.

SMART Utility is an application to scan the hardware diagnostics system of hard drives SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) is a system built into hard drives by their manufacturers to report on various measurements (called attributes) of a hard drive's operation. The attributes can be used to detect when a hard drive is having mechanical or electrical problems, and can indicate when the hard drive is failing. SMART Utility can read and display these attributes. This allows time to hopefully backup, and then replace the drive.

SMART Utility is different from other drive utilities, such as Disk Utility, which only read the overall SMART Status. SMART Utility not only displays the individual attributes to see their status and information, but it also uses an internal algorithm based on those attributes to detect drives failing before SMART indicates it has failed. This pre-fail detection can save precious data before SMART has determined that the drive has failed. And, while the raw information can be viewed on the command line with smartmontools (which is what SMART Utility is based on), SMART Utility presents it in an easy to read format, as well as running its internal pre-fail algorithm.

Full release notes for Version 3.1.2:
* Implemented new sending email system to provide better support, fixing bugs with Gmail and 10.9 (Mavericks)
* Analyzed all code, cleaned up code, and fixed many potential bugs
* Added check time to Casper plist
* Changed email to include all drives in one email
* Changed email to include "SMART Utility" and host name in subject line
* Changed "Last Updated" display to include date as well as time
* Fixed bug on 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7 systems where "Install SAT SMART Driver" menu item would not work
* Fixed bug where Casper plist would not be created when all drives passed
* Fixed bug where Casper plist would not be created by menu extra
* Fixed bug in Casper script
* Fixed bug with toggling tests
* Fixed rare bug where menu extra would run scheduled tests when preferences were changed
* Fixed some bugs with French localization in Menu Extra
* Removed "/dev/" from drive descriptions for better clarity
* Updated help
* Updated French Localization
* Updated model list for new Macs
* Updated attribute human readable names
* Updated SAT SMART Driver to version 0.8
* Updated smartctl engine to 6.2, which supports many more drives, especially SSDs

Pricing and Availability:
SMART Utility 3.1.2 is available in a variety of licenses including a personal license for $25 (USD) and a family license for $40 (USD). There is also a $100 for a business license as well as $65 for an educational site license available. It can be purchased online or within the SMART Utility app itself through its embedded web store.

Volitans Software was founded on February 22, 2007, by Matthew Butch, to sell SMART Utility. The name Volitans comes from the scientific name of the Red Lionfish. Matthew is an Apple Certified Macintosh Technician, an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator, and an Apple Certified System Administrator. He conceived of the idea of SMART Utility because he wanted a better way to test hard drives in his job as an on-site Macintosh Technician. Copyright (C) 2014 Volitans Software. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, and Mac OS X are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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